Assignment - image and text

Task 1

Bokeh

This is the first in-camera technique that I found, to create this technique you need either black card or tin foil and you make a small shape for example a heart and put this over the camera lens then take a photo of something with several lights, this should make the lights in the shape of the shape that you made in the tin foil or black card. This technique usually works better with tin foil. I think this technique looks effective because it makes the lights stand out.

Vaseline

To create this technique all you do is put a bit of vaseline over your lens which creates this blurriness that you see in the photo. This technique looks good because it looks photoshopped when really its not.

Pin hold photography

This technique is making your own camera, to create photos using this technique you get an empty tin or box which should be black inside to stop light reflecting. You then make a small hole in the box/tin, put photographic paper inside the box and expose the hole for a few seconds to whatever you want to take a photo of then cover the hole back up. Once you have done this you develop the photographic paper in a dark room and you should end up with an image.

Task 2

These are some of the test images I did in class sessions to show some of the in-camera techniques that I researched. The first one I did was an example of the Bokeh technique, as you can see I made a shape of a heart in black card and this showed up in the lights on the building that I took a picture of.

This picture I used cling film over the camera lens to create a blurry effect, it didn't really work apart from the edges a bit.

For this picture I used cling film again but put black nail varnish over to see what it would look like, it didn't work very well as it mostly just covered the lens and made it look more blurry than I expected.

For these last two images I also used cling film but put red lipstick over the cling film to create a red and blurry effect, this worked quite well as the lipstick isn't as thick as the nail varnish which made the image just look a bit pink/red.

Task 3

As well as in-camera technique's there are digital ways to create the same effects such as Vignette and Gaussian blur:

Vignette

This is the vignette effect, it makes the object in the image more brighter and the edges darker. This is how you create the effect on photoshop:

• Firstly you open the image you want to edit on photoshop and duplicate the layer.
• Then you change the curve to make the image quite a bit darker.
• Next you use the eraser and put the make the opacity to 10% and make the eraser circle as big as you can.
• After that you make circle motions with the eraser tool to get rid of some of the darkness on the object or main point in the image.
• Finally to finish the image off you flatten it to put the two layers together.

Gaussian blur

This digital effect is called gaussian blur, which is like using vaseline on your camera lens to create the blurry effect around the edges of the image. This is how you create this effect on photoshop:

• Firstly open the image on photoshop that you want to use and duplicate the layer.
• Then you make the whole image blurry by choosing Filter at the top of photoshop, then Blur, Gaussian Blur.
• Next you use the eraser tool and make it as big as possible and make circle motions on the object or main point of the photo which makes that part of the image sharp and the rest will remain blurry.
• Finally flatten the image to put the layers together.

Task 4

Photoshopped filters

Health and Safety risks

Whilst going out and shooting my images I thought about the risks that could happen when taking photographs using in-camera techniques.

Some of the risks could be:

• When using vaseline if it got underneath your shoes and could make you slip over.
• When doing the Bokeh technique if you're using a slow shutter speed and need a tripod to keep your camera still then you have the risk of people tripping over the tripod legs.
• If using cling film in one of your in-camera techniques you hold the risk of getting it caught on your face and suffocating you. 

Task 5

These are the photos I have chosen to recreate using different in-camera techniques:

Task 6 - Produce own images

Task 7 - Evaluate own work


For task 1 I think I did quite well as I researched 3 in camera techniques and described them as much as I could, I also think that I used good images to show the examples of each camera technique. I think I could of have improved on this task by going into detail a bit more on each technique and maybe using more than one image to show an example.

For task 2 I took some images in class of some of the techniques that I spoke about previously in task 1, I think I did this task also well because they show a good example of the techniques. It could have been improved as I could have used a more variation of techniques and maybe got some images that were also outside of class to show the techniques a bit better.

For task 3 I described two filter techniques that are used in photoshop, I think I did quite average in this task as the steps in photoshop are quite easy to follow and used good example images but I think I could improved by possibly print screening photoshop step by step as I did it to show in more detail how to do the Vignette and Gaussian Blur.

For task 4 I did my own examples of the photoshop filters that I spoke about in task 3 with several images, I did good in this task as the images turned out well that I edited on photoshop and looked the same as the examples I used in task 4 but I could have improved it by doing a few more.

For task 5 I chose 3 images that used either/both in-camera techniques or photoshopped filters, I think this task went okay as I copied the techniques properly but could have been improved if I used the same subject or scene in the images that I chose.

For task 6 I took my own images based on "student life" so I chose to photograph a few of my friends doing typical student type things such as reading, studying, shopping and using the computer. I liked how my images turned out as they look like the kind of images you would find in a college leaflet and the photoshopped filters that I did look good on the images that I took. I think I could have improved on this task by taking wider range of photos of more people doing more things, also some of my images turned out that they weren't in focus so next time I will make sure that all my images are on focus how I want them to be.

Task 15


Wide angle lens:
These types of lenses are used for getting more in your photograph, if you are not able to move it ables you to capture more of the scene in the photograph. It can also be used to make something look bigger in the photograph or to show the difference in the size of objects in the foreground and background.

Telephoto lens:
These type of lenses are used to zoom in really far, another name for this lens is a long-focal-length lense.

Macro lens:
These lenses are used to photograph small and detailed things to make the subject in the photograph seem greater than actual life size.

Lighting - daylight:
If you take a photograph outside not using flash it will make your image look more natural as only natural lighting is used.

Lighting - flash:
When taking a photograph using flash it will make your image look more artificial as it is unnatural lighting which would make things look more clearer and brighter.

Task 18 - Pictures showing mixture of lenses

Task 19

Assignment - Documentary Part1

Research


AUGUST SANDER


August Sander was a Documentary Photographer who back in 1929 created a project called Face of Our Time which was a photo book filled with pictures of men of every social class that there is. I chose this photographer as inspiration for my work because I thought that the project he did was very interesting, he took something that was quite simple and made it look really good then made a book out of it. Here are some of the photos from his project:

I think the way that these people were photographed is good because it makes it easy to read the photograph and tell the story of them. These photos show men in every social class in the time I chose 4 out of the 60 portraits in the book, which was published in the 1920s and was part of a series called People of the 20th Century. The images are all in black and white and differs from portrait and landscape, the images are quite formal and no one is pulling any facial expression or a certain pose.

Bruno Barbey


Bruno Barbey is a French photographer who is a member of Magnum. He has photographed several continents and countable world conflicts, he does not consider himself a war photographer he photographed the civil war in Nigeria, Vietnam, the Middle East, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ireland, Iraq
and Kuwait. For one of his projects that he made a book out of, he photographed Morocco where he was born. Here are some of the images:

There is a great difference in August Sander and Bruno Barbey's work, Bruno Barbey documented the country as a whole rather than just the people in it, he didn't used close-ups of people or do portraits either, in his project he shot Morocco as a whole country to show what it was like. These images were shot landscape and in panoramic view and were featured in a book called My Morocco which was published in 2003 which he made because he spent his first 12 years there, he wanted to show how important the country was to him.

http://www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500542828.html

Martin Parr


Martin Parr is a British photographer who has several published photograph books but I chose my favourite that inspired me which is called Bored Couples which is basically street-style photos of couples looking bored. Here are my favorite photos from the book:

This book was published in 1993, the images look candied and are shot with quite vibrant colors with what looks like a old film camera. Martin Parr has made a lot of books out of his work but this is the one that inspired me the most.

August Sander only used men for this project and photographed them in quite a formal and plain way, in all of the photos none of the men are posed or have any facial expressions. The way that you can tell what type of people they were is by the clothing they are wearing and the location they were photographed in, such as the higher class men were photographed in suits and  sat in a chair looking quite important where as the lower class men were photographed in the street on a stair set and in their scruffy clothes. 


Bruno Barbey wanted to show the country in which he was born in an interesting way and show how important it was to him to other people. For this book that he created he mostly photographed doorways and typical Moroccan houses but in a really beautiful and creative way. I think that the way he photographed the country made it look like a really nice place, he didn't use any particular people or poses in his photographs which makes it a sort of street style. These images tell a story well although they are quite simple and I think show what he wanted to show to other people.
I’m drawn to Morocco because, although I’m French, I spent my first twelve years there; I find smells and colours that remind me of my youth. And one should not forget that this country has inspired painters such as Delacroix and Matisse. Like Mexico or India, it’s a place where you can find the ingredients to make visual images’ – Bruno Barbey


Martin Parr created a lot of books out of his work, these images were street style photographs of bored looking couple which I thought was quite funny. The images aren't posed as I think they are candied and all the facial expressions are just bored and fed up, which is what the whole book is based on in general. All the images in the book are landscape, the colours are quite bold and the images look sort of old which could mean that the photographer used a film camera. I think these images are really good for telling a story as you can tell straight away from their facial expressions and body language that they really are just bored couples.


My own images


Evaluation


I recreated images of the photographs that I chose for my research, 3 for each artists. Here are the photographs that I took:

The images I recreated of August Sander's work I used some of my friends to sit on some steps, not posing or having any facial expressions just like some of the photographs in the Face of our Time photos. I also used a black and white effect which was also used in August Sanders work, and I also used girls in my photos like he only used men. I think these pictures are nice and show that I am trying to show my own interpretation of August Sanders work. To challenge myself more I could've used a few more other people to show different types of people in various social classes like August Sander did.


These images I recreated of Bruno Barbey's work I chose to show my interpretation of Leeds like he did with Morocco, like in his images he took photos of doorways of nice looking places in Morocco which I tried to do in Leeds. I also cropped them so that they matched the presentation of his images that are in panoramic view which I think focuses on the doorways in particular and draws your eye to them. I think these images aren't very good as they don't really capture my interpretation of Leeds and to improve on it  I could've photographed more well known things in Leeds and interesting parts of Leeds.

These images that I recreated of Martin Parr's work, I didn't recreate the images I used the subject matter of the book and photographed people around Leeds looking bored. This one was the hardest to do because whenever I found people looking bored and tried to take a photo they looked over and either smiled or moved which made the image blurry but I chose the best few out of all the ones I took. This was my favourite to do as it made me look around carefully looking for people who looked bored. These images turned out good because it shows a good interpretation of Martin Parr's project of couples looking bored, but instead of using couples I just looked for anyone looking bored. To improve this I could've gone to different places than just Leeds and if I found a nice place to take photographs or people who would have looked good I could've asked them to look bored and then I wouldn't have had the risk of people moving in the photograph.